on AI, algorithms, curation, and newsletters
Rubberbandits and scale models, Dua Lipa and Kanye West, Studio Neat and Daily Philosophy, hitchhiking around Britain and 80's poolside chic, and the answer to but is it Art?
14 Jan 23 | Issue 51
No philosophy this week, and no dedicated illustration as our Fatima is currently sedated in hospital following weeks of Covid complications1. So excuse a lighter issue, the author is a little distracted.
The last months have been awash with think pieces about AI. First DALL-E and then ChatGPT, both based on the GPT-3 API from OpenAL. I haven't commented yet. I'm not going to now. I had planned for this week a little shout-out to some of the newsletters that I follow. The present concerns surrounding AI gives me a frame to present these in (I know the hip kids like to say a lens these days. A frame it is then).
Daily Philosophy’s post wades right in with the *but is it art*? question. The comment I've been meaning to leave on it continues the thread touched upon in the article... which sort of art? Our palette includes (sorry) decorative art, to which we can add crafts and skilled workmanship. Then there's illustrative art, whose objective is to offer visual representative support for another piece of media. Finally, the grail of Fine Art. Yes, capitals.
First that evergreen and thorny issue of what is Fine Art? To this we turn to Fatima, who, even if she can not provide an illustration this week, can give us the answer —
If it was made as art and has no other purpose: then it is art
Fatima Fletcher
So far all the images I've seen, credited as DALL-E have always said created by, or more honestly, generated by DALL-E 2. This breaks the first proposition of Fatima's Law. It was not made as art. It was made as a demonstration of DALL-E making art. Not the same thing. This is a craftsman proving his technique. It is crafts, man.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but great artists steal. To paraphrase. The day we see an already established artist using AI to create their art without telling anyone the provenance — passing it off as their own, then the piece both being dissected by art critics (as the artist's own work), and selling at market price — then it's art. It obeys Fatima's Law. Soon a professional provocateur such as Jeff Koons or Maurizio Cattelan will openly create an AI generated piece, with their signature creating the value, and then the question will really bust open. Perhaps they'll use the prompt of "a cat amongst the pigeons".
I imagine when it does happen, given DALL-E always generates a new image, that what will give this hypothetical work its critical value is the artist's curation. Choosing which outputted image is befitting enough to represent them.
The first non-visual artist I was aware of curating as brand was Kanye West. Historians bite your tongue, I said aware of. It was different from the tumblr Odd Futures published in that it was so obviously put together by a team, it wasn't him reblogging away on his phone doing idle studio moments. It was hey, you, post shit that's cool that will make me look cool too. This fact has some relevance later on.
The same rule about artists not using DALL-E to create their work applies to writers. Anyone whose writing is their currency — their brand — their collateral, is not going to use ChatGPT to create their work. Because AI imitates, not creates. And no self respecting writer wants to be thought as as unoriginal.
That is not going to stop AI being used to write clickbait. The internet is no longer a place of curation, a Yahoo directory, it is now a landscape of algorithms, Google PageRank. Social media has a requirement to serve up a constant stream of seemingly new but actually conforming posts on trending topics. To gain exposure in an algorithm, content creators must play within its rules. They must produce work that convinces a platform’s system to include and promote it. An example falling into my lap, I searched for https://www.google.com/search?q=when+did+Kayne+West+start+his+tumblr+account, the returned results included being banned from Twitter and his feud with Taylor Swift. The algorithm driving popularist stories to the surface, not finding related stories to my query.
I've been planning this piece on the growth of newsletters for a while, but Marcelo Rinesi who writes a great science microfiction newsletter framed their rise as a reaction to The Algorithm (cue dramatic but nondescript music).2
Before moving on here's Kanye West as a Tame Impala Song by Nick Lutsko, which while obviously a parody is unfortunately a really, really catchy song. I haven't been able to stop humming since stumbling onto it last week (yes, three years too late).
I'm not a massive fan of Dua Lipa. In fact I only know her breakout hit. But I do subscribe to her newsletter. She has mastered what Kanye West started doing on Tumblr, world-building by linking to content totally unrelated to your own work. She's wise and credits her team, there's no pretence that's it's her, other than her signature, her curation stamp of approval. It's developed into a great magazine leaning into feminist and wellbeing articles. I subscribe as that one-song-connection serves me fresh slices outside my comfort zone.
Studio Neat's Gazette was the first time I saw a brand producing such a newsletter (yes Dua Lipa is a brand). A beautifully simple idea, each of the two founders simply suggests a link of something they've been into during the week. So simple they’ve kept it running since summer 2015 and it's now up to issue 388. Last week's included this gem which is an ideal demonstration of curated content compared to algorithmic matching. It bears no relation to anything I've viewed to date, but I watched to the end.
www.studioneat.com/pages/gazette
Steven Seagal Choke Hold Diorama by Bobby Fingers
I had to do a bit of a deep dive as the production quality is so immense. He's one half of Irish comedy group The Rubberbandits whose day job is a latex props man. Googalate at your peril. The Diorama how-to video descends into a sort of mini The Banshees of Inisherin for thirty seconds halfway through. Also kudos for saying "I used the laser cutter to cut out the parts..." as if it's the most normal everyday thing we all do. Yes you did, Buzz Lightyear.
I pay for my subscription to the aforementioned Daily Philosophy as a kind of insurance for glibly making wild philosophical suppositions. Luckily Britain By Thumb is free.
A beautifully written personal memoir of hitch hiking around Britain, full of humanist encounters and local history lessons. Refreshingly non-topical.
Lastly, I enjoy Palm Report by Poolsuite for its 80s Pacino Scarface take on pastel leg-warmer Miami kitsch, a sort of antithesis to Service 95. A glorious piece of brand building for what started as a Soundcloud playlist.
I'll end with a riposte to that well worn cliche when viewing modern art, "I could have made that", to which the usual reply is "But you didn't". This is in fact wrong. The correct response to such idle philistiney is "But they already did". They went out to the suppliers for artboard, poster paint, or potatoes, or googly eyes and glitter, or whatever their medium is. They took the time to create it, and the effort to place it wherever where the cynical gaze has encountered it. Remember that. They did.
Fellow Substackers — if I haven’t included you, please don’t feel offended. This is a weekly newsletter. There’ll be another edition. I just thinking of the poor readers patience.
This week featured
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rubberbandits
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dua_Lipa
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Lutsko
Buy me a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/vfnIE9P0Ta
Illustration by Fatima Fletcher
The amazing artist Fatima Fletcher is artist in residence. But in hospital. So I stole this week’s art (it is art by the way) from her Insta. ‘Cos she can’t do anything about it can she.
Please show Fatima your love by following and liking every single one of her posts at www.instagram.com/fatima.fletcher, and visiting fatimafletcher.com, where her work is for sale, she is available for commissions.
Her wonderful Ruff Ruff coasters are for sale at fatima-fletcher.square.site/s/shop
Send to a friend
I’m currently interviewing a few more authors, and would love their work to reach a wider audience. If there’s someone you know who might enjoy these posts, please forward this email to them, or one you think better suited to wooing. Better still, ring them up, harangue, shout, threaten and coerce them into subscribing. Nicely, of course.
References
The amazing artist Fatima Fletcher is artist in residence. But in hospital. So I stole this week’s art (it is art by the way) from her Insta. ‘Cos she can’t do anything about it can she.
Every Frame a Painting — “The Marvel Symphonic Universe.”
Hi Julian! I very much appreciate both the shoutouts and your very kind support of Daily Philosophy! I particularly loved this bit:
> I pay for my subscription to the aforementioned Daily Philosophy as a kind of insurance for glibly making wild philosophical suppositions.
That's a wholly new market niche for philosophers right there: legitimising non-philosophers' philosophical suppositions. We could issue little certified indulgences (perhaps as NFTs?), just like the Catholics used to do. For 10 dollars, you get to issue a minor conspiracy theory, like that the Earth is flat. For 100 USD, you get to claim that Derrida is a greater philosopher than Kripke. All payable by online transfer to your local professional philosophers' association. All credit cards accepted.
I like that.
Thanks for the shoutout Julian! Lovely stuff.